_-- 

tt PLANTS GROWING IN MUD. 
pinnate ; of three to nine serrate leaflets, unequal in size; pale underneath. 
Stem; erect; smooth, with recurved prickles ; reddish. 
“Tf Jove would give the fragrant bowers 
A queen for all their world of flowers, 
A rose would be the choice of Jove 
And blush the queen of every grove.”—JZoore. 
Pliny tells us that the many species of wild roses may be 
distinguished from each other by their colour, scent, roughness, 
smoothness, and the greater or smaller number of their floral 
leaves. The swamp rose, however, is one that is most readily 
recognised. It has a somewhat ragged appearance owing to 
its often unequal number of petals; and it grows in great 
masses in the swamps. With the approach of autumn it 
changes the character of, rather than loses, its beauty. The 
leaves become a brilliant orange-red and the bushes glow 
with the graceful crimson fruit. 
To walk by a swamp spread with these roses, makes us reflect 
longingly on the days of the ancients ; when the warriors, dur- 
ing their repasts, sat crowned with them and when, as Pliny 
tells us, their choice meats were covered with the petals, or 
sprinkled with their fragrant oil. The descriptions of the roses 
at the feast that Cleopatra gave to Antony make us cease to 
wonder that Venus herself has a rival in the rose. 
WATER AVENS. PURPLE AVENS. 
Geum rivale, 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR : RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Rose. Purple. Scentless. North and west. May-July. 
Flowers: large; nodding ; terminal; growing sparingly on the flower stems. 
Calyx: top-shaped, with five spreading lobes. Corolla: of five obcordate 
petals. Stamens and Fisti/s: numerous. Styles: long; curved. Fruit: a 
head of dry akenes. Leaves: pinnately-parted, the upper ones having usually 
three lobes. Stem : simple. 
This is a pretty flower of the swamps and low grounds. Its 
purple colour is of a peculiar shade; as though it had been 
mixed on a palette from which the chrome yellow had not been 
scraped, 
